Richard Olejniczak: Candidate Profile

Back to Arlington Heights District 25 School Board

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<p class="disclaimer" style="font-size:16px;color:#666;"><strong>Note:</strong> Answers provided have not been edited for grammar, misspellings or typos. In some instances, candidate claims that could not be immediately verified have been omitted.

<h4><strong>Jump to:</strong></h4>

BioQ&A

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<h3 class="breakHead">Bio</h3>

<strong>City:</strong> Arlington Heights

<strong>Website:</strong> Candidate did not respond.

<strong>Twitter:</strong> Candidate did not respond.

<strong>Facebook:</strong> Candidate did not respond.

<strong>Office sought:</strong>

Arlington Heights District 25 School Board

<strong>Age:</strong> 48

<strong>Family:</strong> Wife - Agnes

Daughter - Kassandra

<strong>Occupation:</strong> Analytics & Business Capabilities

<strong>Education:</strong> US Military Academy (west Point) - BS

Northwestern - Master Engineering Management

DePaul - Master Business Administration

<strong>Civic involvement:</strong> Candidate did not respond.

<strong>Elected offices held:</strong> SD 25 - Board of Education

<h3 class="breakHead">Questions & Answers</h3>

<h3 class="briefHead">Why are you running for this office, whether for re-election or election the first time? Is there a particular issue that motivates you, and if so, what is it?</h3>

- Be a part of my daughter's education.... I feel all board members should have kids in the schools that we are board members of thereby understanding the issues, hopes and challenges that similar parents feel.

- Want to ensure that we have measures to track performance... Currently we still do not have a dashboard of results which we track results on.

- Over 25% of teachers are not in the classroom more than 10 days for the school year... that is too much.

<h3 class="briefHead">What do you think about the process for measuring student success in your district? Is it adequate? What changes, if any, do you propose?</h3>

Great question... after 4 years on the board, I am still not clear as to what measures we use to track the performance of our students and results. Yes we have testing results, but we do not set goals or discuss what criteria we truly judge success.

I would like us to establish a set of criteria that we say is success in terms of goals that we can look to see whether the administration is taking appropriate steps toward success.

<h3 class="briefHead">How big a role do you think the board of education should play in setting the curriculum for students and what ideas do you have for changes to the current curriculum?</h3>

The board of Ed should provide objectives and measures of success. It's up to the administration to determine the appropriate curriculum to meet those objectives and goals.

There are some areas where BOE should Provide more guidance. For example Advanced Learners. A few years ago, the Odyssey program was discontinued amongst great concern from parents to be replaced by an Individualized Learning program that had no sounds roll-out plans or measures of success. Now we are re-looking Advanced Learners'... Why?

<h3 class="briefHead">What budget issues will your district have to confront and what measures do you support to address them? If you believe cuts are necessary, what programs and expenses should be reduced or eliminated? On the income side, do you support any tax or fee increases?</h3>

I am concerned with the amount that we are investing in capital improvements by increasing capacity at various schools. I think we should continue to look at capacity within our own schools rather than simply building.

I have asked at various board meetings when net adds to the budget are being requested, what programs or other expenses the administration would recommend if we needed to be at a net zero add.

I have also started to question why we simply increase our levy every year, rather than look to what programs we actually need to fund. The AH library have not increased their levy yet provide an incredible product to AH.

<h3 class="briefHead">What role can and should school choice play in your district? If Congress or the state approves a voucher system or other means giving students broader choices among public and private schools, how will that affect your district? What is the appropriate response for the board of education of a public school system?</h3>

I am very supportive of school choice. The board of Education and Administration must provide a school system that parents would like to send their children to. If the education process is not sound, parents should have the option to send their hard earned dollars to a school system that they feel provides the best future support for their children.

Having a scorecard (even using the IL school Report Card) is sufficient to help focus on results.

<h3 class="briefHead">What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?</h3>

- Full day kindergarten. Many parents including myself would like to see this option.

- I would also like to see an earlier start time for our schools as a way to balance the need for before and after school care.

- Ensuring we have full transparency in our proceedings. Currently the BOE does not have discussions on topics. We have a carefully orchestrated agenda by the president where open discussion on various topics is nor afforded.

- Placing our board meetings on the net. Most BOEs already place their sessions on the net for all to see... we have historically voted against this capability

- A better understanding as to why over 25% of our teaching staff misses more than 10 school days. If we have standards for student attendance, should we not have the same for our teachers?

<h3 class="briefHead">Please name one current leader who most inspires you.</h3>

Jeff Bezos - the founder of Amazon

<h3 class="briefHead">What is the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?</h3>

Work hard before you relax

<h3 class="briefHead">If life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?</h3>

Nothing... Learn for the past and make better choices in the future.

<h3 class="briefHead">What was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?</h3>

Experimental Stress Analysis... There is always a solution to a problem.

<h3 class="briefHead">If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?</h3>

Listen more and your words will have more meaning and value.